This is the final destination for the roundups of the The Heart of the Matter-eating for life event that takes place on a monthly basis. Our aim is to make a place where you can find all types of recipes for heart friendly cooking!

Friday, 31 October 2008

It's time for the roundup of October month's Heart of the Matter, HotM. This month I was free to choose any colour I wanted and as it is Autumn I couldn't resist choosing yellow/orange. It is emblematic of the season on up here in the northern hemisphere and it is always present in the spring that is going on in the southern hemisphere. So it was an easy choice!We have a lot of different entries here, soups, cakes, pasta and vegetables-you name it. I think I can safely say that pumpkin/buttenut squash are the dominant ingredient but there are others as you will see!

First out we have Cara of Cara's Cravings who finally managed to use her crockpot when she made a beautiful Crockpot Red Curry Chicken with Butternut Squash that has a wonderful colour, not to speak about how great it must taste! (Do check out how she makes the cauliflower rice that accompanies the dish, it's a lovely idea!)

My lovely HotM co-host Joanna of Joanna's Food found time to make an entry as well and I wonder if she was thinking of me when she made it because it is a combination that I love, her Pumpkin in Chilli Oil will definitely find its way onto our table!

Priya from Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes has made a really healthy Pumpkin and Watercress Soup that is full of vitamins and minerals, thanks for taking the time to do the research Priya, really interesting! And a tasty soup as well!

Christine's entry is delightfully colourful, savoury and simple, just the way I like my vegetables! Check out how to make her her Sautéed peppers with garlic and thyme over at her blog Kits Chow!

Mansi from Fun and Food Café offers us these beautiful and yellow Pear Almond Cakes and she promises that they are perfect as a snack, I believe her, they must be great!

These Sugarless Tropical Mini Muffins from Sarah of What Smells So Good? are incredibly healthy and as they still are naturally sweet, I'm sure they are for all of us! I have to try them...

Lovely Arfi from HomeMadeS not only takes us for a pleasant walk in her garden (gardening is good for your blood pressure you know) but then she takes us in and serves us a lovely bowl of Orange Slices in Orange and Star Anise Syrup! Couldn't be better!

Just look at these Sweet Corn Muffins, aren't they pretty in those cup cake forms? Ning of Heart and Hearth has baked us a batch of heart healthy muffins to feast on!

There's one big problem when it comes to making roundups, they always make me so very hungry! So now I have to go and eat something. IF I have forgotten something or someone, if there are links that are nor working, please let me know and I will make amends! A BIG THANK YOU to all of the participants, without you HotM would be nothing!

Friday, 3 October 2008

This month it is my turn to host HotM and I even get to choose a colour because this month whatever you make has to be colourful! I have chosen yellow-orange, I know it's two colours really but I find that there's a thin borderline between yellow and orange and I don't want to find myself in the situation of having to say no because an entry is not yellow enough. (Just excuses to cover up that I like yellow-orangy food things!) So now you have until the end of the 29th of October to cook yellow or orange (or both) heart healthy food, there are so many things to choose from, pumpkins, winter squashes, yellow apples, carrots, corn, apricots well, you can make starters, finger food, dessert, main courses, whatever tickles your mind! Either the main ingredient is yellow or orange or the final dish, I am not fussy about that but I am fussy about it being heart healthy though, i.e.not too much fat, possibly no animal fat, lean meat, less sugar and less salt. If you need to read up on what types of ingredients that are considered heart healthy, check here, here and here. As always we ask that this please be a single event entry (please don’t use your post for other events so that way we can keep things centred on healthy heart awareness), and remember to link to event so that we make more people aware of it's existence. Please send me the link to your entry, the name of the dish and your name as well to me at luculliandelights AT gmail DOT com before your midnight on the 29th of October! Any questions?

Wednesday, 1 October 2008

Heart of the Matter (HotM) is an event designed to promote healthy eating and heart disease awareness. Specifically, each month Joanna, Ilva and I ask you to devise recipes around a specific theme that are healthy for your heart and your body and share them with the rest of us. We archive all the wonderful entries at the HotM blog, so that whenever you need a heart-healthy recipe for any occasion, you have a plethora of options to choose from. HotM has been going strong now for over a year, and we are grateful to all of you who have participated in this important event - people who have been sending in entries from the very beginning, people who have hopped on in the middle of the ride and those just now joining in.

The entries for September's theme of Preserving the Harvest comprise a surprising variety of wonderful ways for you to extend the harvest of whatever season you may be celebrating in your end of the world - sit back, grab a cup of green tea, and start planning your pantry...

The ever-faithful HotM participants, Jai and Bee from Jugalbandi, conjured up a Roasted Tomatillo Salsa. Their delicious photography and just getting ahold of the recipe for this salsa ought to be enough on its own to send you running to their site, but you'll have to read their post to get the full effect of their entry - it's hilarious!

Hailing from my old stomping grounds in Eugene, Oregon, Culinaria Eugenius has created one of the most unique entries we recieved: Vegetable Salts! What a cool way to use up extra vegetables, reduce your sodium intake while upping the flavor quotient, and have cute little jars of your own making to add to the pantry! Not only that, this woman is a Master Preserver! Check out her fabulous blog for additional recipes (and witty commentary) - from fermented pickles to dried tomatoes and beyond!

Ever end up with so many of the same vegetable that you just didn't know what in the world to do with it? Sarah from the blog, What Smells So Good?, used up her 11 lbs of carrots and got a big dose of beta carotene to sweeten the deal by making her Curry Carrot-Ginger Soup. Sounds like a wonderful way to start the cooler season to me! While this is probably an easy-to-freeze recipe too, she also suggests a great way to use up extra food: give it away to your loved ones!

Melissa, our resident nutrition expert from Gluten Free for Good, tells you all about the health benefits and nutritional details about apples, then shares her recipe for dehydrating them and turning them into healthful, tasty and easy to carry snacks that you can take with you no matter where you want to go - whether to school, to work or even hiking up a 14,000 foot peak!

Tanna, from My Kitchen in Half Cups recounts her experiences in making Preserved Lemons and takes you through a photographic feast of links and useful recipes so that not a single one goes to waste. Then, to help you even more, she provides links to other sites that have made Preserved Lemons too so that you can load up on wisdom from other bloggers and new ways to use these beautiful and tasty treats before you begin making your own!

Over at the blog, My Diverse Kitchen, Aparna made a beautiful and delicious-sounding Apple Tomato Raisin Chutney to go with some tasty-looking and innovatively-seasoned crackers. This chutney sounds like it's heaven cooked together in a pot: tomatoes, ginger, apples, anise, cinnamon, onions - the list of lovely ingredients goes on and on. Go check it out!

Forget buying those dried out, tasteless and scentless red pepper flakes from the store to put on your pizza or add spice to a dish. My lovely co-host, Ilva, from Lucullian Delights offers her simple method of sun-drying chili peppers. She keeps her Dried Chili Peppers in her kitchen for use the entire winter long, making them available whenever she needs them. What a great idea!

Last of all, I conquered my fears of fermenting my own foods and made kimchi (kimchee). It's a great, heart-healthy (and body-healthy) way to use up a head of Napa cabbage and adds tons of flavor to all types of foods. You can read about it at my blog, The Accidental Scientist.

Thank you to everyone who participated! If I somehow missed your entry or you forgot to send it in, please email me and let me know so that I can add you to the round-up. Join us next month for a new theme, when Ilva is host!